SJHL Game 15: Yorkton Terriers at Battlefords North Stars

The Battlefords North Stars host the Yorkton Terriers at the Civic Center this afternoon. It’s a 2 o’clock start as part of parents weekend. The Midget AAA Stars play right before the North Stars. The Trips play at 11am. After the North Stars game fans can bring their skates and skate with the team.

Recent Games:

Yokrton Terriers:

The Terriers are coming off back to back wins over Kindersley so far this weekend. This will be their third game in three nights after beating the Klippers 7-1 on Friday and then winning 6-5 in a shootout last night. Dawson MacAuley started both those games for Yorkton. The Terriers are just 2 points back of Melville for first in the Sherwood. After starting the season with just 1 regulation loss in their first 10 games the Terriers are 3-3 in their last 6 contests.

Battlefords North Stars:

The North Stars fell just short of what would have been a miracle come back at the Civic Center last time out. Back on Friday the La Ronge Ice Wolves led 3-0 with under a minute to go in the game. The Stars scored twice on the power play and with 10 seconds left had a faceoff in neutral ice. They couldn’t win that draw though and time ran out.

Coach Hasselberg was happy with the effort of his guy and said it was just one of those games. The first period was a good one for the Stars and I thought they outplayed La Ronge. But there was just one goal and it came from a North Stars turnover along the wall. The Ice Wolves forecheck threw a good hit and that freed the puck up. It came right to the slot and Louis-Joseph Sawyer was all alone. He rifled it past the glove of Connor Creech from point blank range.

The second period was a little more even but again the Stars outshot the Ice Wolves and the only goal of the period came on a turnover by the Stars. This time a puck found it’s way out front from behind the net and Jessey Touchette had time to settle the puck and skate around Creech and slide the puck into the empty net.

In the third Luke McColgan took a crosschecking penalty and that led to Nathan Boyer sniping a goal post and in to make it 3-0. McColgan was a little unlucky that his stick broke on the play because otherwise it might not have been called. The Stars PK was good all night but Boyer just placed his shot absolutely perfectly. So 3-0 in the third means game over right? Not if you are the North Stars. In fact they had some power play time in the third and the PP looked pretty good. Moving the puck and getting shots. They just couldn’t get any breaks. Like when Kyle Hall hit the crossbar. With under a minute to go the Ice Wolves Owen LaClare took a slashing penalty. 12 seconds later Braeden Johson scored to make it 3-1. The Stars got another power play on a slashing call against Brett McNevin with 17 seconds left. 7 seconds later the puck was in the net. Josh Betinol poked it home even though Kyle Hall was given credit. Myles Hovdebo was fired up after that goal. The Ice Wolves goalie felt he had the puck covered as it appeared he had it pinned between his left skate and the post long enough for a whistle. But the whistle didn’t come until after Betinol had scored. So it was 3-2 with 10 seconds left and Hovdebo was tossed from the game because of his protests over the second goal.

The Stars had to try and win a faceoff in neutral ice with their net empty and get down the ice for one last shot at a miracle comeback. And with Dasan Sydora coming into the game in goal with 10 seconds left and having not seen a shot since warmups the Stars looked to have a chance. But the Ice Wolves did enough to get the puck down into North Star territory off the draw and time expired.

Players to Watch:

Yorkton Terriers:

Tyler Giebel. Has 10 goals so far this season and just 3 assists. He is second on the Terriers in goals behind Jeremy Johnson. And he is one of 9 players on the Terriers who has 10 or more points so far this season. The North Stars have 4 such players.

Derek Falloon. Listed at 5’7 and 160 so Falloon is obviously not a big guy. But he is a point a game player so far this season and I remember him standing out as one of the Terriers that was fun to watch last time these two teams met. Falloon came to the Terriers in a trade with Swan Valley and has lots of experience at the Junior A level in Manitoba. He’s looked good so far in the SJHL.

Battlefords North Stars:

Justin Waskewitch. 6 points in his first 2 games as a North Star but Waskewitch has just 1 point in his last 7 games and that came last time out against La Ronge. Now that he has snapped that 6 game pointless streak lets see if he gets rolling again.

Cody Bird. I thought he had a decent game against La Ronge and if Dillon Forbes is still unable to play then Bird will get a chance to build on that performance. He’s still looking for his first goal in junior hockey, of the guys who have played regularly so far only Forbes and Blake Young are also still looking for their first goals this season, and he does get power play time. This afternoon could be his time.

Head to Head:

On October 24th the North Stars beat the Terriers 4-3 at the Civic Center. The Stars trailed 3-1 heading to the third period in that game. Josh Betinol and Braeden Johnson scored goals to make it 3-3 and then Matt Sheeran scored his first ever junior A goal and it stood up as the game winner. Kyle Hall and Luke McColgan each had 2 points in that game for the North Stars.